Jump Start # 148 

Jeremiah 38:6 “Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.”

  Poor Jeremiah! What a terrible place to be in. He had spoken God’s word. The message wasn’t pretty. The Babylonians were coming. The city of Jerusalem would be lost. Many would be killed in battle. Others would die by disease in the city. Those who are captured and taken away wouldsurvive. The message wasn’t good. The commander didn’t like what he heard. The prophet was discouraging the troops. He ordered Jeremiah thrown into the well or cistern.

  Jeremiah didn’t stay in the cistern long. Word got out and he was rescued King Zedekiah.

  This presents to us a couple of wonderful lessons to consider. First, God’s word is truth. He doesn’t sugar coat things or say sweet things to get us to like Him. He is God. There is a message of God that many never hear today. In many, many  churches today a lesson on Hell would be considered unfit for the modern audience. It would not be considered friendly to visitors. Many never read those verses in their Bibles. They only want to hear about God’s love, God’s grace, God’s goodness. The message of judgment is as important as anything else. Jesus spoke more about Hell than He did on Heaven. If God loves, why would He send anyone to Hell? Great question. Do you know the answer? The punishment of Hell doesn’t seem to fit the crime of sin? Another good question. Is Hell a real place or just ceasing to exist? Is Hell real fire or is it just imaginary? The fact that we have questions and we don’t like where those questions lead us does not mean we simply not talk about it. Out of sight and out of mind doesn’t work with God. Passages such as John 3:16 and Mark 16:16 contain punishment for those who do not obey Christ.

  We don’t like those messages. Nor did the people in Jeremiah’s day like his message. What do you do when you find passages that you don’t like? Do you just skip over them and ignore them? Do we have that option? Do you just not think about them? Do you lash out at someone who brings them up?

  This is our second lesson from this passage. All through the Bible, when audiences did not like what they heard, they turned on the preacher. Jeremiah was put in a pit. Stephen was stoned to death. Paul was dragged out of town. Jesus was nailed to a cross. Killing the messenger doesn’t change the message. We are not as drastic today. We just go to another church. There is a time to do that. If the preacher isn’t preaching the Bible or isn’t telling you what the Bible really says, either he ought to go or you ought to go. But when he is preaching the truth of the Bible and we don’t like the message, leaving is wrong! God has spoken about divorce. The message isn’t pretty in our throw away society today. God wants His church to practice discipline upon members who don’t want to walk with Jesus. That’s not a crowd pleasing message.  If were not careful we become like a child at meal time. He doesn’t like beans in his soup, so he picks them out and refuses to eat them. We pick out what we want and refuse the rest. The result of this is we become unbalanced spiritually. We do not have the complete message or picture. We  become “out of season” and desire to hear only what we want to hear. Paul told Timothy to preach the word “in season and out of season.” Paul himself declared that he preached the whole council of God’s word.

  We began with “Poor Jeremiah.” In a pit full of mud. But the truth is, poor people. They didn’t want to hear God’s word. Are you different than they were? Being a preacher, I have felt that some would have enjoyed stuffing me in a pit of mud if they could get away with it. I’m glad they didn’t. But more than that, I only wished that they would open their ears and hearts to the message that was being preached.

  When you hear something that isn’t pleasant, you must ask yourself, ‘is this the truth?’ If it is, you will either change or drag the messenger to the cistern.

Roger

Jump Start # 147 

Jeremiah 10:5 “Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, for they can do not harm, nor can they do any good.”

  This is one of my favorite Jeremiah passages. God is speaking here. Through the prophet He warns Judah of the false idols of the nations around about them. Earlier in the chapter God warns Judah not to learn the ways of the nations. He then tells them of the folly of idolatry.

  Our passage is packed full of negatives. The idols simply cannot do what their followers think they can. Notice, they cannot:

• Speak
• Move
• Do harm
• Do good

  Having heard that, we’d ask, “what can they do?” And the answer is nothing! The analogy is a scarecrow in a cucumber field. Being from the Ohio Valley, I’ve never seen that. I’ve seen scarecrows in corn fields but never a cucumber field. Unlike the Wizard of Oz, where the brainless scarecrow could speak and dance, these brainless idols are less than that. They cannot scare birds away and they cannot even keep the birds from pulling straw out of them to build a nest. They are worthless. They are a waste of time. Yet, the pagans pray to them. The pagans bow down to them. The pagans would sacrifice, sometimes even their small babies, to them. This is beyond us. Our first reaction is to think, ‘we’re people really that dumb back then?’ The answer is ‘No.’ They are not a lot different than we are. They were fed lies from false prophets. They had no system of belief. Their faith was based upon feelings and the lies fed to them from the false prophets. Our faith is different. It is based upon the word of God, which is proven, tested and sure. When the storms come, which Jesus said they would, our faith stands, because it is based upon the word of God.

  The faith of the pagans is not much different than what is being written in popular books today and being preached in many pulpits. The faith of so many is based upon personal experiences and feelings rather than the word of God. It is easy to get excited. The music, the drama, the emotions fill the air and people get charged up. This is true of a pep rally and it is true of many church services today. The direction is backwards. Today so much emphasis is placed upon the atmosphere and creating excitement rather than teaching the pure word of God which stirs one up from the inside out.

  Jeremiah adds in the next verse, “There is none like You, O Lord; You are great, and great is Your name in might.” Nothing is like God.

  Why do you believe what you believe? Is it because of the way you feel? What if you didn’t feel that way? Is it because it seems to work? Or, could it be because it is what is right! The Bible isn’t presented in a fashion such as, if you like it then it is for you. Rather, it is for you, whether you like it or not. It is from God. It does not change to fit you, but rather you fit it. The pagans were bowing down to what amounted to scarecrows in a cucumber field. What are you bowing down to?

Roger